This proceedings volume is a compilation of papers from three symposia held at the 2001 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston. Historically, some of the most outstanding breakthroughs in the biological sciences have stemmed from the application of physical characterization techniques to the examination of biological materials and systems. Excellent examples include the application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to the examination of human tissues and the use of X-ray diffraction to determine the structure of DNA. Symposium FF, Physical Characterization of Biological Materials and Systems, draws together researchers from a diverse range of disciplines that are applying physical characterization techniques to the study of biological materials and systems. The past decade has also seen an explosion in novel polymer synthetic and processing routes that allow control of tissue engineering scaffolds at the micro-, nano-, and even molecular levels. These advanced techniques are enabling tissue engineers to synthesize scaffolds and templates that intimately regulate cell behavior. Researchers from Symposium GG, Polymeric Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering, come together here to identify and elaborate upon the unifying themes in polymeric synthesis, processing and characterization as specifically applied to tissue engineering research. In Symposium HH, Bioinspired Materials--Moving Towards Complexity, chemists, physicists, biologists and engineers join together to discuss the interdisciplinary development of synthetic materials based on concepts for materials design found in nature. Their potential for biomedical applications, electronics, catalysis, separation technology and adhesion areaddressed.